Sorting for Multiple Artists

[Starrcade]

I have a song on an INXS cd that is a duet with Ray Charles. The Artist name for the song was INXS, so I changed the Artist for the song to "INXS feat. Ray Charles" and all my sort tags in my profile disappeared. I added the sort tags again, and the Artist Sort tag said "INXS feat. Ray Charles." I thought the software would recognize "feat." and create tags for each artist.

Note: I have "Detect Multi artists from '&', 'ft.' & 'feat.'" selected in the Options, but it isn't making tags for each artist, or I don't understand what this option really does. What is it supposed to do?

What is the correct way to make artist sort tags when you have a song with 2 artists? The sort tags should be for "INXS" and "Charles, Ray." I don't know how people normally handle this, or what is the correct method/steps.

[Spoon]

"Detect Multi artists from '&', 'ft.' & 'feat.'"

When reading from the internet it will correctly enter the artist names, in this instance if manually entering you should put:

INXS; Ray Charles

[simbun]

What is the correct way to make artist sort tags when you have a song with 2 artists? The sort tags should be for "INXS" and "Charles, Ray." I don't know how people normally handle this, or what is the correct method/steps.

For greater compatibility I would stick with:
Artist: INXS; Ray Charles
ArtistSort: INXS; Charles, Ray

But if you're willing to put in the work there are other options (would require an additional tagging step):
Artist: Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj
Artists: Elton John; Young Thug; Nicki Minaj
ArtistsSort: John, Elton; Young Thug; Minaj, Nicki

[Starrcade]

But if you're willing to put in the work there are other options (would require an additional tagging step):
Artist: Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj
Artists: Elton John; Young Thug; Nicki Minaj
ArtistsSort: John, Elton; Young Thug; Minaj, Nicki

Forgive me, but I am slightly confused. You have a great example with 3 artists since I have some CDs like that.

(1) What is the additional tagging step? You wrote "Artist" and "Artists" which (which have the same info). I only have Artist and Album Artist. I know Album Artist would be Elton John in your example. And I would type "Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj" as the track's Artist in the specific row for that one song (if only Elton John or something else showed up as the Artist). But where is the Artists field, and why would it exist (what is the purpose versus the Artist field)?

(2) I only have an "ArtistSort" field. You wrote "ArtistsSort" (plural) - does that exist or was it a typo? If it exists, should I be using both ArtistSort and ArtistsSort for this song, or just the plural one (and where do I find the plural ArtistsSort)?

(3) For the Artist(s)Sort tag: if I do one line separating the 3 with a semi-colon ("John, Elton; Young Thug; Minaj, Nicki"), do different players recognize the 3 artists and display each one? Meaning, do you scroll through your artists and select Young Thug and you see the Elton John song? And then you can scroll through all your artists, select either Elton or Nicki and you will see that song?

I hope that makes sense. I'm sorry for asking many questions. I don't have a player yet. I am about to rip hundreds of CDs and I want to make sure I do it right the first time.

[simbun]

(1) What is the additional tagging step? You wrote "Artist" and "Artists" which (which have the same info)

• Artist is a single string (notice it has '&' in it) that reflects exactly what you'd see on the CD track listing e.g. https://musicbrainz.org/release/a11d...3-e3aecfa1ca09
• ArtistS is a multivalue tag containing one value per artist.
• ArtistSsort is the matching multivalue sort tag.

Artist is used when displaying track listings, and the multivalue tags (ArtistS and ArtistsSort) are used in indexes.

The additional step is that you'd need to run the tracks through MusicBrainz Picard to get the data. As I said, this approach isn't the most compatible, so you would be limiting your server/control point options. What are your requirements for a server, and are you on Android or iOS?

[Starrcade]

After ripping a test version of the song, I found the flac file on my computer hard drive and right-clicked on it to view the Properties. There was a tab called ID-Tag, which you can see below in my screenshot. Before I ripped, I manually changed the Artist for the track to "INXS feat. Ray Charles" and then I added the Artist Sort tag (since it had disappeared) and manually typed "INXS; Charles, Ray" and then pressed the rip button.

There wasn't an Artists or ArtistsSort option available before ripping, nor did one appear after ripping. I think you are saying I would have to do the additional step of using MusicBrainz Picard to add the plural version of the tags. If I don't do that extra step, then what will happen in most players with the tags I have below? When I view the list of all my artists, will there be one for INXS and another one for Ray Charles (sorted in C) or will he be listed the way it was typed (Charles, Ray instead of Ray Charles), or will the list show an artist for INXS and another artist for "INXS feat. Ray Charles"?




For your questions: Right now, my goal is to put all my CDs on an external hard drive. After that is complete (which may take several months), then I will look into different players to find the best one for me. My phone is currently Android. My computer is Windows. I just want to do everything the correct way and future-proof it as much as I can so I don't have to make a lot of changes later. I feel like I can play the music directly from my master hard drive, or I can copy songs from it onto other sources (another computer, a phone, etc.). I really want to understand how to handle these type of tracks before I press the rip button and what I should be doing or editing, along with what the end result will look in most players. I am eventually going to come across many CDs similar to the Elton John example above. I don't know if my tags are correct nor do I know how they will actually work in most players.